The effect of grazing pressure on rotationally grazed pastures in spring/early summer on subsequent sward characteristics

peer-reviewedTwo experiments (E1 and E2) were carried out to examine the effect of grazing pressure (GP) in the early part of the grazing season on subsequent sward composition. Three GP levels, equating to 6.35, 4.24 and 3.53 cows/ha in E1, and 6.06, 5.05 and 4.03 cows/ha in E2, were used. The GP treatments were applied between April and July in E1, and April and June in E2. As GP decreased different swards, termed high (HQ), medium (MQ) and low (LQ) quality, were created. The post-grazing sward heights at the end of the GP periods were 6.6, 10.5 and 14.6 (s.e. 0.78) cm in E1, and 5.9, 8.8 and 11.4 (s.e. 0.39) cm in E2, for HQ, MQ and low LQ, respectively. Organic matter digestibility coefficients for herbage from the HQ, MQ and LQ swards during the subsequent grazing cycles averaged 0.770, 0.729 and 0.702 (s.e. 0.0055) in E1, and 0.761, 0.731 and 0.711 (s.e. 0.0038) in E2, respectively. Average live leaf proportions of the HQ, MQ and LQ swards were 0.583, 0.427 and 0.329 (s.e. 0.0193) in E1, and 0.600, 0.474 and 0.362 (s.e. 0.0155) in E2, respectively. GP had a significant effect on the proportion of grass area categorised as short grass (SG). The proportions of SG area in HQ, MQ and LQ were 0.711, 0.579 and 0.445 (s.e. 0.0106), respectively, in E1, and 0.700, 0.556 and 0.441 (s.e. 0.0133), respectively, in E2. Pre-grazing herbage mass (dry matter above 45 mm) was 2,065, 2,736 and 3,700 (s.e. 144.1) kg/ha for HQ, MQ and LQ, respectively, in E1 and 2,688, 3,735 and 4,722 (s.e. 145.0) kg/ha for HQ, MQ and LQ, respectively, in E2. The results show the importance of early season grazing pressure in creating a leafy high-digestibility sward for the remainder of the grazing season

Earthquake Machine Lite: Activity 1 of 2

This activity is the first in a two part sequence designed to increase students' understandings about earthquakes. It will address the following questions: What is an earthquake?; What is the role of a model in science?; and How are scientific ideas constantly changing? The activity involves the construction of a model ('The Earthquake Machine') that allows students to explore stick-slip behavior of some faults. Teacher background material, references, standards alignments, and a zipped file containing a slide demonstration of the Earthquake Machine and supporting animations are provided. Educational levels: Middle school, High school

Comparing reporting of MYOB Enterprise Reporter vs Xero HQ Reporter

ABC Chartered Accountants is a public accounting practice located in Te Awamutu, providing professional accounting services to a range of clients. MYOB Enterprise (MYOB AE) is used as office accounting software, and financial statements are produced by MYOB AE reporter. This research compares reporting of the existing MYOB AE reporter with Xero HQ reporter, as an alternative for compliance, efficiency, consistency, and report customizing process, and also to find out any other additional reports that Xero HQ can produce compared to MYOB AE. Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate the insight of MYOB AE reporter and Xero HQ reporter. Actual MYOB AE software, together with some MYOB supporting materials, were used (MYOB. Reporter 3.3.help Designing & Generating reports for your practice .Reporter 3.2) and Xero reporting videos (Xero Partner Resources. 2018), with some Xero reporting information published from Xero (www Xero.com/report template in action) were used. The major findings are that MYOB AE and Xero HQ offer compliance reporting templates for different types of entities. Both software allow customised reports to reflect practice preferences. Customising reports help to keep report consistency and report efficiency at the practice. When customising reports in MYOB AE, formats are created, and in Xero HQ Rich Text Editor, Layout Editor and Report Setting Editor are used. When customizing reports, the time spend on planning a new report will maximize the benefit to the practice. So, the difference between the two reporters is the method of customizing reports

Manufacturing Management Practices in the Western Balkans

In this report, we investigate the quality of management practices in manufacturing plants in the Western Balkans. In particular, we focus on modern operations, quality of monitoring, target setting and talent management. Drawing on 385 survey responses from plant managers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia and Serbia, we find that management practices scores are similar in all four countries. Our results also show significant variation in management scores across industries and ownership types of the plants. Furthermore, the plants owned by foreign MNCs were found to be better run than domestic plants in all types of management practices in all four countries. Trying to answer the question which MNC HQ resources significantly affect the level of management practices in their subsidiary plants, we find that the average HQ country level of management practices is positively associated with the level of management practices in their subsidiary plants. This effect is even stronger when the HQ provides written procedures and trainings to subsidiary plants to help them implement the best practices from the HQ. Finally, based on the personal interviews with managers in 28 plants, we highlight external conditions that prevent the plants from improving their management practices

Earthquake Machine Lite: Activity 2 of 2

This activity continues and compliments the previous Earthquake Machine activity by pointing out the advantages and limitations of the Earthquake Machine model, explaining the causes of earthquakes and extending students' understanding about earthquake generation, occurrence, and prediction through the collection and interpretation of data. It addresses the following questions: How frequently do earthquakes occur?; Are all earthquakes large events?; How frequently do large events occur?; Can earthquakes be predicted?; How does the Earthquake Machine model compare to global data?; and How do scientists strive for objectivity in their results? It uses the Earthquake Machine models and slide presentation from the previous activity and includes homework exercises, teacher background materials, standards alignments, and references. Educational levels: Middle school, High school

Isolation and characterisation of 2-Tert-butyl-8-hydroxyquinoline as a crystalline solid and its blue fluorescent Li complex

Copyright © 2014 Poopathy Kathirgamanathan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.2-Tert-butyl-8-hydroxyquinoline (2-TB-8-hq) has been isolated as a crystalline solid and its X-ray structure elucidated, resolving three decades of controversy, since it was previously wrongly reported as yellow oil by some other workers. An improved synthetic method has been developed which increases the yield from 20% to 60%. The lithium complex of 2-TB-8-hq is blue emitting and the HOMO and LUMO levels are lowered by 0.86 eV and 0.74 eV, respectively, compared with the parent lithium 8-hydroxyquinolinolate (Li 8-hq)